Summary

Outside of Al Tafar, Iraq, Private John Bartle, the book’s narrator, and his friend Private Daniel Murphy – or “Murph” – wait with their U.S. Army unit to lay siege to the city. With them are Malik, the unit’s Iraqi translator who grew up in Al Tafar; the unit’s lieutenant; and Sergeant Sterling, who is directly in charge of Bartle and Murph.

The chapter opens on the unit’s fourth day of fighting, during a brief lull that is about to break. Bartle recalls the first day when Malik stood on the roof talking to them about his childhood in the city. As he’s talking, Bartle and Murph warn him to get down, knowing that the enemy is about to start shooting. Malik doesn’t listen and he dies as he’s telling the men about an old woman who grew...